Opposed to PSG this Saturday, April 8, the Riviera club intends to rely on its Nigerian striker who has been gaining momentum since his arrival this winter, from Lorient.
” It’s a real pleasure and a pride to be here “. Terem Moffi repeats it over and over again: OGC Nice has always been his priority and he made it clear this week at a press conference that he had ” never been close to an agreement with OM “. Enough to attract a little more favor from Nice supporters when it comes time to receive PSG at the Allianz Arena.
A meeting that comes at the right time, while Lionel Messi’s teammates are experiencing a monotonous end to the season and remain on two straight defeats in the league. Above all, the Nice, eighth in the standings, will want to forget their draw on the lawn of Angers, red lantern of Ligue 1 during the last day of the championship.
Most expensive transfer from Nice
This meeting against the Parisian leader must also validate the good pass of their 23-year-old star striker, who was the club’s most expensive transfer. During the winter transfer window, Ineos, the British group that owns OGC Nice, spent some 25 million euros (plus 5 million in bonuses) to snatch Moffi from Lorient and forestall interest from OM or clubs in the English championship.
Author of 4 goals and 2 assists in the last seven games, the Super Eagle took the time to digest his transfer after a mixed start where he remained silent in the face of the cages, far from the statistics of his first part of the season, punctuated by 12 goals in 18 games with Les Merlus. ” I had to adapt to my new teammates. We can always progress in football, I am not the perfect player. During the first games, I was not at my best. I still have to find benchmarks with my midfielders and perform better between the lines “, he tried to justify this week in the local daily Nice morning.
His new trainer Didier Digard said the same thing in February, when the 1.88m colossus arrived: “ We had ten training sessions with Terem, that’s still very little, reminded the coach. You have to create automatisms. I know there is a lot of expectation from the public. But we, staff, we are very happy with what he does. We know it takes time. He is hardworking, he is at the service of the team. Honestly, it’s positive. Everyone hopes to see him score, but with what he shows us, I’m very happy “.
gondola head
The player with an atypical career now assumes his new status, that of head of the gondola of the project carried by Ineos, which wants to make Nice one of the clubs that counts in France. Since this winter and his new contract, Terem Moffi is now the fifth highest paid African player in Ligue 1according to the daily The Team. A testimony to the confidence placed by the leaders of Nice in their number 9.
In the sold-out match against PSG tonight, Moffi will be keen to live up to that confidence, he who likes to shine against the capital club, with three goals scored in his last four duels against Paris in the jersey of Lorient. In addition to the collective objective of getting closer to a European place, Terem Moffi can reduce the gap with the top scorer in the championship Kylian Mbappé, present this evening on the other side of the lawn of the Allianz Riviera.
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